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Monster Power

From Diablo Wiki

Archived Article[e]Monster Power is an archived article about material previously included in Diablo 3. However, it has currently been removed or the article contains outdated facts. The information is stored in Diablo Wiki for posterity. Please note: Links in this article lead to both updated and archived material.

The Monster Power system was retired with the launch of new game content in D3v2 and Reaper of Souls expansion. See the difficulty article for full details on the current game features.

The Monster Power system was introduced into Diablo 3 in Patch v1.0.5 in October 2012, after being testable on the Diablo 3 Public Test Realm for several weeks. Inspired by the Diablo 2 Players X system, Monster Power allows players to set a level from 0-10 which will increase the difficulty of the game.

Patch 1.0.7 updated the Monster Power to add considerably more experience per MP level, making for faster leveling up with higher MP levels.

With each level of Monster Power, the enemies increase in their hit points and damage. In exchange, players gain greater experience, a bonus to Magic Find and Gold Find, and the potential for bonus item drops from non-Elite enemies. The rewards and scaling values differ from Normal/Nightmare/Hell vs. Inferno, and playing on even MP1 in Inferno increases all Act 1 and Act 2 monster levels to 63, creating a big leap in difficulty and item drop potential.

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To turn on Monster Power players need to open the Options menu and click the check box to enable it. After that all characters of any level, Hardcore and Softcore, can select their desired monster power on the game creation menu, next to the quest selection box, when creating a new game.

Monster Power is displayed on the screen in-game, so players can see what level it is set to when they join a game with MP enabled.

Blizzard released full information about the Monster Power effects in mid-October 2012, detailing the exact changes triggered with each level of Monster Power with the aid of some infographics. Note that the v1.0.5 patch also contained a substantial nerf to overall Inferno difficulty, thus MP0 in v1.0.5 was considerably easier the game had been previously, and Blizzard estimated[1] that MP2-3 was about the equivalent difficulty for pre-v1.05.

Player testing tended to disagree[2] and at least in Act 1 and Act 2, the game felt harder on MP1 than it had been previously.

One key detail is that Monster Power grants very different bonuses and changes while on Normal/Nightmare/Hell difficulties, compared to Inferno difficulty. For the first three difficulties, while characters are still leveling up and not yet finding end game quality gear, the following changes can be enabled.

Monster Power on Normal, Nightmare, or Hell difficulty.

Experienced players generally find playing a new, low or mid-level character on a high Monster Power setting to be very fun and a great way to level up more quickly than usual. [3]

Monster Power grants different bonuses and effects on Inferno, giving high end players a very challenging play mode by greatly increasing the hit points and damage of monsters. The values in the infographic below were accurate for the system when it was first released in patch v1.0.5, but a week after the patch went live Blizzard reduced the damage output. None of the other values were tweaked at that time.

The new values, which apply only to Inferno (Normal/NM/Hell were not adjusted) are:[4]

A key factor for players new to the MP system is the fact that playing on even MP1 raises the monster level of all enemies in Inferno to 63. This changes nothing in Act 3 or Act 4, but on MP0, Act 1 = 61 and Act 2 = 62. Monsters at level 63 have much better odds to drop higher level gear, but are also much more difficult to battle in some ways, especially regarding their resistance to crowd control effects such as stun, chill, knockback, etc.

Item Level drop rates in Inferno on ML1 or higher.

As you can see in the infographic above, there is no change to the item level potential of drops in Act 3 and 4, but with ML1+ monsters in Acts One and Two drop items with the same high level potential as Act 3 and 4.

Monster Power does affect the items found from chests and barrels and other clickable objects, as those are keyed to drop gear similar in level to the monsters in their areas. [5]

Environment objects like chests, barrels, and loose tiles (we call them “gizmos) will all benefit from the iLevel/mLevel change. In patch 1.0.5, items you get from gizmos will now have their affix level determined by the gizmo’s level and not the item’s level.
In terms of Monster Power, gizmos will behave like monsters. At MP1+ in Inferno, gizmos in each act will be bumped up to level 63. (At MP0, nothing changes. They’ll just keep their normal level, like monsters do.)

Crafting, on the other hand, is not affected in any way by the Monster Power level.[6]

After the system was implemented, players spent a great deal of time experimenting with and arguing[7] about the ideal Monster Power level for item farming. After much early excitement over the increased experience and other bonuses, the conventional wisdom coalesced around the idea that fast runs on a lower MP setting are better than slower runs with a higher MP bonus.

The early consensus was that Act Three on MP0 was the easiest place for item farming, since the monsters were all level 63, and MP0 on Act Three is much easier than MP1 on Acts One or Two.

The bonus from Monster Power that players found impactful was the increased odds of finding a key from one of the Keywardens, or one of the Demonic Organs from the further battle with the uber bosses. Thus for key farming, playing on the highest MP possible, ideally while teamed up with other players for survival, is the recommended strategy.